2008

January 2008 to November 2008

Following are the contents of some of our recent issues. Feel free to download the whole issue by clicking on the icon. If the articles pique your interest, and you'd like to see more, please subscribe!

#260: November 2008 TOCReclaim the Food System! - Cathleen reports on the National Assembly of Food Secure Canada The Hunger Count - Food Banks Canada reports steady numbers at food banks, more groups serving hot mealsCorporate Moves: Updates on Saputo Monsanto Syngenta Big BeefOn the biotech front - Transposons ("jumping genes") don't fit the reductionist model
- If it's GE, is it Ayurvedic? - not according to the traditional Ayurvedic practitioners
- Nontarget Effects: Strong Stalks - BT cornstalks provide overwintering for borers, need to be destroyed
- Argentina: Full of Earth - a local organizing newspaper to publicize landowner abuses
- Markets and Labels (or not) - reports from Korea, Poland, South Africa, and Brazil on GMO approvals and labelling
- On the one hand
- ... and the other - a new GM purple tomato no better than natural alternativesMy two-day field trip with Germany's BASF Plant Science - condensed from a report by Jocelyn Zuckerman in Gourmet Magazine

#258: August/September 2008 TOCLies and Contradictions: we are mesmerized by the barrage of lies from government and industryFellow Consumers: Michael McCain, CEO of Maple Leaf Foods, tries to deal with a major outbreak of listeriaLong Reach: the contaminated meat even got to LabradorGood News: Doha is Dead -- the failure of the Doha round of trade talks in July is good newsCorn of Many Colours -- a poemBut where is the Yield Gene? -- the industry complains about 'spin' from its opposition!"Can't see another way out" -- Syngenta head admits lack of visionCommon Sense from Royalty -- Prince Charles has a vision, and a programHubris -- the biotech/agrotoxin industry promises salvationEli Lilly to buy rBGH -- Monsanto backs offBan on GE Alfalfa -- a ban has been upheld by the US Court of AppealsSeed Industry News -- Monsanto's Chinese joint ventureNestlé Re-Positions Itself -- and tries to defend bottled water'Protecting' bottled water -- three companies join in a propaganda pushUrban Organic Farming -- a new centre opens in Guelph, OntarioGMO GPS -- in Germany, you can find GMO crops on the internet, why not in Canada?

#257: July 2008 TOC"Green is the New Black" - Regulation stifling direct markets may lead to a new black market in local organic foodGovernment Dismantles Itself - from the CFIA to research, government is handing responsibilities to corporationsA Very Different Attitude - the Bocock family donates most of their farm to the University of Alberta for agriculture researchRay Epp writes from Hokkaido, Japan, about using wild yeasts
Sustainable Fuel Initiatives:Growing biodiesel for their own farms - a farmers coop in Manitoba grows 'feed' for their 'horsepower'Learning Centre Proposes Waste-based Biodiesel - Everdale Centre in Ontario looks at 'renting' their product to restaurants and then recycling it as fuelReducing Carbon Emissions - Prince Charles' Aston-Martin runs on ethanol from 'surplus wine'What goes ’round ... - a correspondent notices sustainability behaviour in birdsCorporate Watch:Rearranging the Deck Chairs - Mergers and AcquisitionsTyson Foods - plans to sell beef interests, focus on chickenCargill & Fertilizer - update on world's primary phosphorus and potash producerA Public Food Policy - Food Secure Canada members plan a coast-to-coast public process on food sovereignty policy

#256: June 2008 TOCResurgent Neocolonialism - and the assault on AfricaThe Party Line /Lie: US Ag Secretary spouts lies about development, griculture, and genetic engineeringAGRA: Green Revolution Part 2 - a South African commentaryFertilizer Prices: accessible to the palm oil producers (if they are large and wealthy enough)From the Horse's Mouth: direct quotes from the Gates Foundation, FAO, et. al.La Via Campesina call for mobilization against the G-8 in Hokkaido, JapanIndigenous Food Sovereignty: excerpts from a major report from BCFood Sovereignty in Gujarat, India: herders lose access to traditional territories, become nomadicFarming and Climate Change: a letter from a flooded farmer in the US mid-westBack to Basics: Guano - an old fertilizer finds a new nichePlaying Lobbyist - you too can come up with a line for Monsanto!Cargill donates $10 million to CARE with a focus on child nutrition and farmer trainingPotatoes: not traded as a global commodity but important nonetheless

#255: May 2008 TOCCaution: Neoliberalism at work - futures market and its effects; and the conclusion of an international study that change is essentialWho really gets the 'food aid'? (Follow the Money, part two) - perhaps to the CEOs of the agribusiness corporations?Who is to blame? - Robert Zoellick blames the USA (but he was one architect of their policy)nontarget.org - a new publication from The Nature Institute on the Nontarget Effects of Genetic ManipulationSwiss 'Dignity' Law - the law requires respect for the dignity of plants as well as animals, lawyers struggle to figure out what that meansEarnings and Inequity - Statistics Canada reports that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer and the average hasn't changedSweetness and Light: Candy Makers Merge - Mars and Wrigley, both family businesses, mergWind Power - the wind in Spain provides power to the plainAnother burst balloon - the Canadian government pays farmers to kill their sowsEuropean Update
- Greece expands GMO ban out of concern for bees
- The European Commission postpones acceptance of three GMO cropsGM Crop Promiscuity, Longevity - canola is found to hybridize about 40 species;
- scientists map biotech crops to better study gene flows;
- GM plant seeds found in fields 10 years late

#254: March/April 2008 TOCFollow the Money: - we look at what is behind the rise in grain pricesSupermarket Wages: breaking the unions for corporate competitivenessWorld Beef: update on mergers and expansionAbout Feedback: the CFIA learns that people are deeply concerned about health and environment, and decide to adjust their messagingClean Milk (relatively speaking): WalMart and others refuse milk produced with rBSTNutritionism: reductionism in the food systemFood Safety in China: Cargill steps in to helpAppendix A: scientists discover the likely role of the appendixNeither Food Nor Nutrition: Cargill's new ingredient for frozen desserts; egg replacers for baked and other foodsCell phones may disorient bees: stay away from the microwaveSugar Beet Resistance: food companies join the opposition to GM sugar beetsAttack on the Eldest Brother: farmers and activists in Hawaii opposed GM taro, which is viewed as an ancestor of the people.

#253: February 2008 TOCLady Bountiful Version 2.08 - Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation helping small farmers pull themselves up by their bootstrapsThe Indian elite is ... seceding from the people - comment from India about the growing wealth-poverty gapFood Industry Notes - corporate mergers are old news, the interesting stuff is in the resistance to the industrial food systemLife Imitates Art - Candy bars are now full of caffeineDangerous Invasive Species - that would be corporations"Corporate Control from Seed to Sewer" - NGO position at the Convention on Biological Diversity meetingsNews: NAFTA is a Disaster! - rising corn and bean prices leading to a deep crisisFertilizer Woes - Potash Corp and friends reap record profits; Canada's Ag minister recommends farmers go cross-border shoppingSeed and Ideology - the attack on Kernel Visual DistinguishabilityBangladesh threatened with hybrid rice - TNCs rush to take advantage of the hurricane aftermathCowpeas - Monsanto et. al. are trying to push GM versions of this traditional cropThe Appalling Meat Industry:Pork Brains (processing makes workers sick)Recalls (slaughter of 'downer' cattle for food programs)Connecting Ethanol Byproduct and E. Coli (problems with cattle fed distillers' grains)It's the model that has to change - Greenpeace and Canadian Federation of Agriculture disagree

#252: January 2008 TOCThe Disappearance of 'Public' - Brewster looks at public markets as a way of considering the use - and loss - of public space
"Eau de Source Public" - tap water may be more 'private' than you thinkProduct of Canada - of of nature? - how can publicly-controlled water be sold in bottles?Political meltdown affects food industry - although Unilever is struggling with tea supplies, fresh veggies are shipping from Kenya to the UK no problemAnalysis from Eldoret, Kenya - a friend writes that this struggle is about power, not tribalism, and the poor continue to sufferFrom animal to machine: the next step, cloned meat - the industry defends cloning as 'substantially equivalent'Safe as Milk? - the US FDA support for cloning is questionedHey, Nobody's Perfect - James Watson, famous for his work on DNA and his bigoted statements, discovers he probably has a grandparent of African descentResources on AgrofuelsThe Depressing Section:

Monsanto collects from farmers - farmers in the US lose lawsuits

Yet another Monsanto front group - American Farmers for the Advancement and Conservation of Technology

Another hidden subsidy for Monsanto - called the Biotech Yield Endorsement program

No benefit to consumers, just shareholders - Monsanto's actions are clear

Copyright: All material published in Canada is automatically copyright. However, we decline this privilege and place all the material in The Ram's Horn in the public domain, to be freely used and built upon. We would appreciate acknowledgement of the contribution of The Ram's Horn to your work.